MORRISTOWN — It’s likely that attending a picnic for a brain tumor support group isn’t on anyone’s list of things to do. Maybe it should be.

On Thursday night, Aug. 28, more than 100 people attended a picnic for the ANS Center of Hope Foundation, the group that funds the Partnership of Hope, a support group for people who have brain tumors.

The picnic was held outdoors. There was good food, a dunk tank, where anyone could dunk their favorite neurosurgeon, and lots of laughter, hugs, and stories — not all of them with happy endings, but then no one’s life story has a happy ending, if all anyone looks at is death. There were plenty of people at the picnic who seem to focus on living, not dying.

The picnic is just one of the monthly events held at Atlantic NeuroSurgical Specialists offices, 310 Madison Ave., for the support group — and this one is always the largest. See more photos of the picnic here.

Somehow, between the staff at Atlantic NeuroSurgical Specialists, the neurosurgeons, people who run the Partnership of Hope and people with the Center of Hope Foundation, the attitudes everyone projects is one of hope and joy.

Rich Eastman, whose wife, Jean Aspen had recently died, 2 1/2 years after first being diagnosed with a brain tumor, he said. Since her diagnosis and after receiving treatment, she and Rich went about doing all those things they wanted to do. They traveled across Canada by train from Toronto; visited Vancouver British Columbia, then flew home — the three-week trip was “wonderful,” Eastman said. They also flew to California to see members of her family and, this spring, flew to Colorado where they watched a grandchild be confirmed. He pointed to a photo on his iPhone of him sitting with Jean at a table on the banks of the Platte River. “We had walked along the river that day and exactly one week later, she couldn’t walk,” he said.

He said when she was first diagnosed, they were afraid to do anything, but “Doctor (Brian) Beyerl’s group urged them to “keep doing things … so we did.” Their motto became one of “Just do it.” By the time he was done with his story, there were tears in his eyes and somehow, a smile on his face, perhaps because they made those memories, perhaps because there was someone new with whom he could share them.

Sitting together were two couples — Kevin and Kelly McGuire and Flo and Bill Dvorak. Each one had on a sign and each person looked healthy. Bill answered the unasked question and pointed at Kevin and Flo — “they have brain tumors,” he said, adding, with a smile, that he and Kelly were their supporters and, no they aren’t related. Flo said she was diagnosed with a benign tumor three years earlier and was doing fine, then pointed to Kevin. “He’s got me beat,” she said.

Kevin said it has been 14 1/2 years since he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It has grown and changed over the years, progressed through various steps and is now classified as “brain cancer,” he said. Still, he’s survived.

It was difficult to tell the brain tumor patients from family members — they all wore the same red and white stick-on name tag. People who work at ANS, the foundation or support group had on different name tags or uniforms, which made them easy to spot.

Throughout the event, people stopped by a table displaying information about a new treatment, “NovoTTF™ Therapy … a portable, non-invasive anti-mitotic system approved for use in recurrent recurrent glioblastoma patients who are 22 or older.”

This is an option for patients who have run out of surgical and radiation options, after they have received chemotherapy. It’s a device they can use at home and has fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

According to information supplied by ANS, “NovoTTF Therapy delivers a novel treatment called Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields), which are frequency-tuned electric fields that have been shown in studies to disrupt the growth and spread of cancer cells. TTFields spares healthy, normal non-dividing brain cells by directing treatment directly to dividing cancer cells in tumors.

“NovoTTF Therapy is designed for continuous use throughout the day by the patient. The device is recommended to be used for at least 18 hours, and can either be plugged into a wall outlet or can run on batteries for portability.”

For those who have run out of options, this may be yet another option so they can continue to “keep doing thing” until they can’t.